Good luck, Yohan.

Yohan Pino made what may well have been his last start with the Twins, what with Nolasco coming off the DL.  Pino helped us all feel a little better about that by giving up seven runs in 4.1 innings.  The radio broadcast made much of other teams taking advantage of first-pitch strikes, but it's kind of a catch-22 for Pino.  His stuff isn't good enough for him to succeed if he falls behind, so he pretty much has to throw first-pitch strikes.  Unfortunately for him, once teams figured that out, his stuff isn't good enough to get them to miss those first-pitch strikes.  What it looks like, sadly, is that Pino simply isn't good enough to be a big-league pitcher.  If this is it for him, well, at least he got one major league win, which is one more than you and I will ever get.

The Twins used Trevor May in relief to try to get him some confidence.  I understand the theory, although I'm not sure how wise it is to ask a guy who's only made five relief appearances in his career and none since 2010 to do so in his second major league game.  Did it work?  Well, kinda, I guess.  He didn't walk anybody in his first two innings, although he gave up two to open his third inning.  He gave up three runs in 2.1 innings, although only two of the runs were earned.  I don't think those are quite the results the Twins were hoping for.  Still, he will presumably be back in the rotation and we'll see how things go.

Every time I see Jordan Schafer bat, Dick Bremer says something to the effect of "this is the kind of player the Twins are going to be looking for."  I understand his point, to an extent--the Twins could use more speed, and they could use better defensive outfielders.  But it worries me every time I hear it.  It could be that this idea came entirely from Bremer, but a lot of times team broadcasters repeat what they've been told by the team, so I always think, "The Twins can't seriously be considering Schafer as an everyday player, can they?"  We've been through this before, but the guy just can't hit.  He's never hit in the majors.  He didn't hit in AAA.  Even his AA numbers, while decent, are nothing to shout about.  The Twins have to see that.  This has to be just Bremer being Bremer, right?

Tonight Kyle Gibson goes for the Twins, which should make us all feel a little better.  He'll take on Brett Oberholtzer, who appears to be a perfectly ordinary major league pitcher at this point in his career, although at age 25 he could improve.  Only forty-four games left.  Time to start that season-ending winning streak!  We'll just have to settle for 97-65!